Twenty-seven Minnesota legislators—all Republican—have signed on as co-authors to House File 322, a bill that would allow government agencies to file civil lawsuits against individuals to recover costs of police presence and response, along with ”related legal, administrative and court costs," to any person convicted of participating in an unlawful assembly, to any person present at an unlawful assembly, or any person committing public nuisance. (I read the latter two as not requiring a conviction, but the wording is unclear.)
This is troubling. It's worse than criminalizing protest: it's profiteering from protest. It's unnecessary, imprudent, unconstitutional, and racist.
There's no question that protest is a sacred element of American democracy, and there's also no question that sometimes protest leads to public safety hazards. Protest is a First Amendment right; nuance and careful consideration of facts, circumstances, and liberties are required in how law enforcement prepares for, responds to, and protects (yes, that too) our right to protest. But HF 322 eliminates that circumspection, allowing government to use the power of the courts not through established prosecutorial means—where individual and direct culpability are considered—but rather through unbounded civil litigation.
The First Amendment does have boundaries, and some demonstrators choose to overstep them, usually through non-violent acts of civil disobedience. But the law already provides restitution as an available remedy to prosecutors: as part of a sentence, a judge can order ”...payment of compensation to a government entity that incurs loss as a direct result of a crime."
